In the Hair's Breadth
by tiffthom
Summary: Hinata has always considered crying worse than falling, and the beauty in being able to choose. Sasuke is thankful to be in the crosshairs of her beliefs.


_**A/N:**_ _Shoutout to Bawgdan (go read her work) for proposing that we do a writing sprint to get us to both produce something. We chose Sasuhina for the ship and this happened on my end. Sasuhina is a good rarepair with a lot going for it that I want to continue exploring as time goes on. The setting begins after Orochimaru's death when Team 7 and company moved out in pursuit of Sasuke. There are recalls to the past, and the piece ends with a clear divergence from the canon universe.  
_

* * *

The plum blossoms unearthed a distant memory. Hinata hated scolding herself for having her head in the clouds as far back as she could remember. She'd barely been able to walk without her father's _hakama_ as security, but cutting through the wind with the others, and the petals wafting around them sharpened her eyesight.

Hard lines hadn't always burdened Sasuke's features. Happiness had once been the light in his eyes before the menacing _sharingan_. How far had revenge taken him? How much had it robbed his sense of self? Naruto's _chakra_ was the only clear answer. It made the trees move and kept them all at a safe distance behind him, and Hinata wondered if this was the right thing.

 _The Uchihas had been steeped in isolation, and her father was ever curious. The Byakugan and Sharingan were unspoken rivals in his thoughts so an invitation reached Sasuke's family and its loneliness drew them to the Hyūga manor._

 _Hinata moved about the party stiffly, weighed down by too much fabric, too much etiquette and protocol. Something invisible shielded her from her cousins who'd introduced themselves to the Uchiha girls. She'd hoped to make a friend, but they shifted their gazes from her, the princess who didn't know her place. Her mother and father talked business and family life. Hinata tried to catch her breath in the room full of people._

Naruto groaned from his soul. They were so close, but Sasuke stayed his course, sailing further and further away. Kakashi ordered they pick up the pace, fan out, and search the town. Hinata pulled the hood of her cloak down, casting her face in shadow, and she sought him out. It was faint, but it was him and she moved forward.

 _Her robes tripped her, and she sat up darting her head from left to right, hoping no one had seen. Hiashi abhorred falling out of decorum. There was no one except her. She tried to pull herself up, but it was useless given her attire. Tears burned the corners of her eyes, but crying was worse than falling._

 _The pattering of his feet on the wood made her shut her eyes deathly tight, but then his hand was on her shoulder, and his touch was warm. She opened her eyes to Uchiha Sasuke and he was smiling at her, and bringing her to her feet before she could fathom the blackness in his eyes, so different from her own._

Those dark eyes were like a barrier now, not the alluring depths of their younger days. Hinata and Sasuke stood in the middle of the road, townspeople hurrying by, the radio transmitter in her ear warbling like crumpled paper, and she wanted to do something, but was any of it right?

He moved forward and stopped at her side, and the warmth, that had somehow survived, of his hand on her shoulder made her release the breath she'd held. He walked on, and Kakashi's voice came through the radio, and then everyone else's saying they'd had no luck finding Sasuke.

She didn't look back, fearing her own heart breaking, and rejoined the group. Naruto sniffled and split a tree in half, and she couldn't feel the earth thundering beneath her feet when it fell. The guilt didn't move her like she thought it would, neither did Naruto's choked tears. Sasuke was on a journey that none of them could truly comprehend. Perhaps Kakashi related to it, but he also appeared to know well enough that Sasuke was gone.

* * *

It didn't occur to her how severely romance changed things until it became hard to smile back at Naruto. Sasuke had come home, shaped by countless crimes, but he'd been excused, and the war was won. The past never resigned itself so easily.

Naruto's eyes turned bluer as he blinked at the truth and repeated what happened three times. Hinata just nodded. He put it all on her, the way Sasuke turned out even though Sasuke had all but drilled his objectives into everyone. Sometimes Naruto had tunnel vision.

Their romance halted before it took form, and she told herself she had no reason to cry. The truth wasn't powerful enough to overturn a years-long lie. She licked her lips, trying to rid them of the taste of miso ramen, and her fingers curled into balled fists, nails digging into her palms. It just seemed like the right thing to do back then and it hurt because her opinion hadn't changed.

His cape flapped in the wind when he joined her on the rooftop. The orange part of the sky bled into the red, and she watched it ripple as the sun set, a beautiful distraction from the mess she'd made. Hinata released the tension in her hands when Sasuke sat beside her. The control on her tears shattered when their eyes met. Naruto had apologized to Sasuke for her mistake as if she were a child unaware of her actions, but _Naruto hadn't been there_.

Sasuke rubbed the join of her neck and shoulder, and pulled her close. She didn't stop him. She wiped her face quickly, careful not to stain his clothes, and he smiled as the sky darkened and the stars came into view.

She caught her breath only to lose it again when he thanked her. Revenge had taken him so much further than he thought he'd go, and he almost destroyed the only things that mattered after the weight of his clan's name rested squarely upon him.

However, on that day, as he pressed after Itachi, so close to what he believed he needed to do, she was the only one trying to grasp his sense of reality. Not because she followed him as a means to an end nor because she fought for his friendship.

"It isn't your fault so no more tears," he said as she kept drying her eyes.

She swallowed her breath and broke from him, rising to her feet.

"It's good that you're home, Sasuke. Please take care" was all she could leave him with before pursuing solitude.

And they went on moving in an unfinished circle never questioning why.


End file.
